March 31 (UPI) — NASA officials shared the final preparations for the Artemis II mission at a press conference at Kennedy Space Center on Tuesday in Cape Canaveral, Fla.
They talked about the progress made on the mission, which will be the first crewed flight to the moon in more than 50 years and the farthest distance from Earth traveled by humans yet.
Major testing is complete, NASA said, and there are no major technical obstacles left. The rocket is doing “really well,” after the latest round of repairs. Hydrogen leaks and a helium system issue caused the latest round of repairs. They’ve all been fixed.
“Our team has been working amazingly hard through these weeks and months, trying to get this vehicle ready to where it is,” Jeff Spaulding, a senior NASA test director with the Exploration Ground Systems program, said in the briefing.
“We’ve had some challenges. The team has done an outstanding job managing each and every one of those throughout all of this, through many different scenarios, through weather or through lots of different things that we’ve had to work through to try to get through all of this and get to where we are today,” Spaulding said.
NASA is targeting Wednesday for the flight during a 2-hour window that opens at 6:24 p.m. EDT, with more launch opportunities through April 6.
The Artemis I mission in 2022 flew around the moon but didn’t have a crew aboard. The Artemis II crew are: Mission Specialist Jeremy Hansen, Mission Specialist Christina Koch, Commander Reid Wiseman and Pilot Victor Glover.
After canceling a launch attempt in February because of a helium valve issue, officials said that the only thing they are worried about for the Wednesday launch is the weather. But the forecast offers an 80% chance for proper conditions.
Wind is a potential foil on launch day. The team will assess conditions with a balloon that analyzes wind. Launch weather officer Mark Burger said NASA is doing real-time monitoring via multiple methods.
The crew will orbit Earth for a day, then the Orion capsule will send them to the moon. They will circle the moon, then head back to Earth. The flight will last 10 days.
“Our team has worked extremely hard to get us to this moment,” said launch director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson. “Certainly all indications are, right now, we are in excellent, excellent shape.”